The signed letter was released by the Stealing Isn’t Innovation movement from the Human Artistry Campaign and calls on companies for "ethical" partnerships instead of the practice of "theft." It reports that the American creative community is renowned for its potential to create jobs and contribute to economic growth; however, some of the largest tech companies, many of which are funded by private investment firms, use authors' works without permission and in violation of copyright laws.
Currently, companies involved in artificial intelligence are facing numerous lawsuits regarding copyright infringement due to unauthorized use of protected works to train their models; the outcomes of these legal disputes remain ambiguous.
AI systems are trained on vast amounts of data, including texts, images, music, and videos, extracting patterns to generate new content. However, a significant portion of these materials is collected online without the consent of copyright holders, including books, articles, artworks, photographs, and musical compositions. While companies argue that this can be classified as "fair use," artists consider it unauthorized copying that harms their income and intellectual property rights.
In 2024, Scarlett Johansson criticized OpenAI when the Advanced Voice feature began to sound similar to her voice from the 2013 film "Her." The actress's legal representatives sent letters to the company claiming that the use of her voice without permission was unlawful. As a result, OpenAI temporarily suspended the "Sky" voice feature.
